


Snag in Machinery

by lovelyarsonist



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, PWP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 07:03:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10848888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelyarsonist/pseuds/lovelyarsonist
Summary: The day Aloy says yes to Nil is quite a bit different than all the other yes's that came before. Nil gives her a long, silver look that catches on her insides, makes her heart beat a little quicker, her breath a little shorter. And Aloy would never admit that he does this to her, but she knows he is looking for weakness. Some kind of snag in her machinery."I take you at your word," he says, cool and collected and not like he just asked Aloy to sleep with him.





	Snag in Machinery

The day Aloy says yes to Nil is quite a bit different than all the other yes's that came before. Nil gives her a long, silver look that catches on her insides, makes her heart beat a little quicker, her breath a little shorter. And Aloy would never admit that he does this to her, but she knows he is looking for weakness. Some kind of snag in her machinery.

"I take you at your word," he says, cool and collected and not like he just asked Aloy to sleep with him.

"Or words, if you have any more for me."

There grows a curve to the edge of his mouth. Aloy expects him to step forward, to take the initiative, but he doesn't-- and as if it is a private ritual between them-- Nil, again, is asking her to lead in the hunt.

She looks him up and down, taking in the Nil before her and all of his white armor-- the breadth of naked chest and strong arms. She drinks him in, and that makes Nil become very quiet, almost deathly still.

 _Prey_ comes to mind, and Aloy wonders if Nil is used to being looked at it this way. When their eyes meet again, he arches a brow at her like he caught her doing something.

"How long have you been.. thinking about this?" She asks, wondering why he hasn't ripped her armor cloth off by now, why she hasn't sunk to her knees yet. What kind of fast, impulsive thing was supposed to happen behind the bandit camp with the heat of the hunt still flinty in their veins.

She steps into his air, unstrapping her weapons as she does so. She helps Nil out of his. And she realizes this is the first time she's ever touched him, and it strikes a low heat in her.

He smells like death and blood and a scent that is very much Nil. The urge to grab him bubbles up in her, to bury her face into his neck, to run her teeth across his jaw-- to take him for her's. He is large and strong, and there is a kind of victory to hunt such things.

"Only during the space between heart beats, when blood is up and both of our intent is there," he says cryptically, as if that is a real answer. She gives him a look that has no heat behind it, but isn't convinced. He smiles down at her, and she catches the sharp glint of his teeth.

"I don't like to sit too long on an idea, else it stays just that: an idea," he offers, and she takes it with a grain of salt as she reaches up and begins to take off his helmet.

"Ah ah," he stops her by pulling his head away, frustration and anticipation makes her want to show her teeth.

Instead, she takes hold of his vest and shoves him up against a stripped pine fence that throws them both in shadow.

His eyes light up in surprise, and it's satisfying.

"Are you in.. or aren't you?" she breathes, their lips close enough to kiss- but they don't. She can count the number of eyelashes this close, feel the rise and fall of his chest against her.

A hand goes around her neck, the palm large and fingers calloused. Hunters hands, like her's. He catches her breath in her throat. This time, it's Aloy who gets slammed into the woodwork. For a moment, she is seeing stars.

The feeling of being choked is a familiar one, but the way Nil carefully places pressure and attention is not. It's intimate, in a weird way. And Aloy stares up at him, only to see Nil's face has darkened, the vestiges of a smile still in his eyes and mouth.

He looks hungry.

"Overzealousness is an easy way to get one killed. Not becoming of a huntress such as yourself."

"Works fine for me thus far," Aloy answers, tilting her chin up in defiance. Little did she realize that was what Nil anticipated and nose bumps into his. He catches her lips and and it's a chaste thing at first, nothing carnal like what she say in his eyes a moment before. Aloy reaches up to pull him in, but he pushes her back into the wood by her throat, holding her, controlling the kiss. And it's at Nil's pace, and only when he gets the slow devouring kiss that he wants does he begin to release his grip, letting the beast that is Aloy free.

It's slow, and it melts her from the inside out. All of her experience with this kind of thing is learned on the spot, right now, and she curves against him, pressing her chest against his. He is running his thumb across her cheek and Aloy has a fist full of his vest to make him adjust to her. Heat burns up in her veins, and she bites his lower lip, keeping him captive for a second before letting him go.

He smiles into the kiss and pulls her deeper, tasting her, and seeing this kind of emotion from Nil is addictive, getting something out of the killer that is only her's and for them to see. They are in their private world at the end of the bandits suffering, the fires still burning and the bodies being piled up only a hundred feet away.

"Who's zealous now?" she says as she comes up for air. She is pulling off his top and he is fiddling with the straps on her chest. And sometimes they get caught looking at each other, and Aloy pulls him in to kiss again.

It seems to take ages for Nil's hand to find a way under her armor and up under her shirts. Despite the heat of the sun, the coolness of the shadow has drawn her nipples tight in the exposed air, and Nil hums appreciatively as his thumb runs over one. It sings electricity down her bones. His mouth to her neck. 

It feels strange to have his teeth at her throat.

"Now I never said I was above the rules," he says low and playfully into her skin. His helmet is tickling her so she finally gets the thing off and he doesn't seem to notice.

Well at least doing this with the stupid helmet on wasn't one of the rules, she thinks, exploring the dark locks of his hair for the first time. He's naked from the waist up and warm as a fire-- his hands impossibly hot as they go to grip her hip possessively. The bastard of a hunter decided to do this out in the open, instead of in a tent or house, and Aloy finds herself shivering from the air or anticipation.

His ears are red from a flush-- a _sexual flush_ she thinks, enjoying the honesty that's hidden behind those mysterious smiles and bright eyes. She is eager and reaches up to his shoulders and pushes him down, the Carja hunter folding easily into the grass. He doesn't just sprawl there though, he leans back on his elbows, and the visage of hard lines and warm marble before Aloy makes something curl pleasantly in her stomach. 

Pulling off the rest of her shirts, she quickly gets down to mapping out his scars, hands brushing his ribs and the Carja hunter shutters under her finger tips.

"Don't tell me.. you're ticklish?" She laughs as he catches her wrists to stop her.

"We all have our flaws," he says, and the wrestle for a second. Aloy doesn't play though, she knows this is a fight, and she pins him hard into the dirt, hands on either side of his head. She grins in victory, but it dampens when she doesn't feel him press back against her. The lure of the hunt is palpable, and Nil is a puzzle, looking at her like she is the one on display here and not him beneath her palms. 

Her red hair falls into a curtain around them both, private and intimate again, and Nil is watching her with lidded eyes. He is being difficult, she realizes, taking what he wants when she lets her defenses down, and never before. Slow and patient, unlike any machine she's ever hunted. And Aloy feels like a little girl again, unsure when to throw the rock to distract the watcher.

 _'Why are you doing this?'_ she wants to ask, but her question may have an answer she isn't looking for, a question she doesn't want to ask herself. 

Instead she measures him, running her hands down the length of his arms and biceps, all long muscle built for speed and strength. She palms his pecks, running her fingernails into soft flesh, not looking away as she does so. His breath seems to hitch as she enjoys all his vertical lines that seem to just lead her _downward_. Aloy finds where the path leads as she dares to reach further and palm a sizable bulge in his trousers. 

Aloy blinks in surprise, not daring to look, and Nil who doesn't brag about anything doesn't start now. He simply smiles and reaches his hand downward over her's, forcing her to _feel_ him, in case she had any doubt where this was going. A thrill lightnings down her spine.

It's a slow study, one where Nil helps her undo the lacing of his clothes and helps her pull him free. He holds himself by the base and Aloy allows herself a look. It's large and taut and curved just slightly, and Aloy finds her hands approaching Nil with a wariness that in hindsight must have been flattering. He doesn't allow her the mercy of looking away though. Her palms smooth the long length of his erection. 

For all of Aloy's hunting, flesh is still something new to her. So used to the sparks of machinery licking her exposed arms, or the hurt of digging her fingers into the guts of wires; the jagged edges of things. But Nil is none of this, and for all of his teeth and sharpness, he is so very human like this. The lack of feedback is strange, the tactile equivalent of a watcher's stun, but Nil shows his approval in a sigh and a shift of his hips to allow Aloy better grip. For a few minutes, Aloy runs hand simply up and down, pumping and feeling the shape and tautness of the shaft. She shyly runs a thumb over the tip and returns to explore at length when Nil gives her a small gasp that she holds warmly in her chest.

It's intimate and the rawness of it makes Aloy feel like she is frayed at the edges. Expecting everything from Nil except sweetness like this. He leans back in contentment and seems lost in it as Aloy continues. She turns to look at his face, seeing someone completely relaxed and almost boyish, a little dent between his furrowed brows that Aloy wants to smooth with her thumb. 

She wonders if this is the only time that thinking brain of his is quiet, whether in sleep or like this with her. And Aloy knows what to do to pull him apart, and she gently increases the speed, starting at the base and keeping light pressure as she strokes up and twists at the head.

Nil gasps a little "yes," and arches his spine, opening his eyes and gaze immediately going between them. Feeling Nil watching her gives her a charge, and of what kind Aloy isn't quite sure. 

"Just like that," he murmurs, and Aloy obeys, repeating the stroke and finding the rhythm. His breathy sounds sets the pattern to go faster or slower. And Aloy heart beats loud in her ears at his quietness; Nil just as silent during the hunt, and his small acquiescence of sounds gives her a kick of adrenaline. 

He grows restive under her hands, and Aloy isn't quite through with him when he sits up a little and grips his hand over her's to stop her. 

"Nil--" she says in protest, unable to finish him.

Finding her balance in the corner of hip, he easily topples her to the side. Aloy falls and the grass tickles her naked back. Her hair falls away from her breasts and she's suddenly open and vulnerable as Nil curls above her. 

He takes her clothed leg and wraps it around his waist as he ruts up against her. Aloy gives an unbecoming whine that Nil doesn't laugh at, but seems possessed by instead. Leaning over her, he flexes his shoulders and lower back to push up against her again and Aloy groans.

"You can trust me," he had said, slightly sing-song at the beginning of all of this, and Aloy feels like he has pushed her at the edge of a cliff, scaring her with the emptiness below. She grips him unsteadily as she feels the friction of him sliding deliciously between her legs, and all she wants to do is get her pants off and forget the empty feeling that scares her. 

She grips his hair in a fist, and Nil tears her pants from her exposed hip bones. As if forgetting she has boots on, mumbles something into the side of her neck-- something akin to 'you have to let me go' before she does, and he bends down as if to worship. He unlaces her boots and frees her long legs and is on her again. This time, he bares his flat teeth and runs them along the edge of her breast and the dent of her ribs. Aloy is all short-circuited now, and arches her shoulders from the grass up into him. His mouth on the crease of her leg and abdomen feels like triumph as Aloy puts her legs on his shoulders. 

Anticipation pulls her taut as a rope Nil looks up at her, and the image of him between her legs is burned into her like a hot blade. He drags his teeth through the thatch of red hair and opens his mouth further to lick the top of her sex, forcing a gasp from her lungs. Nil is reserved in his opening of her, closing his eyes in concentration as he licks he slowly up to the tip of her clit. And Aloy is coming undone. 

She grips her hand in his hair, but he doesn't speed up his ministrations. His thick fingers find their way between her, and pushes a middle finger in at the right moment. Aloy bites her lip to keep the sound from erupting. He is leaking between his legs with knees flat on the dirt, and Aloy grips the grass beside her head at the image of it. She thinks she's close as he continues to pump her with his fingers at a leisurely pace and taste her. Aloy feels like she is surrendering as she groans beneath him. 

"Nil," she breathes, reaching down for him for the sign to 'come up for air.' She doesn't force him like she wants to, but he looks up at her with bright eyes and Aloy begs him with her own. 

He capitulates in the best way, reaching down to grip the base of himself, and he leans above her again. He gets his knees under her thighs, and forced her to give up balance completely. She is unsettled as she arches her chest up into his, and despite her loss of ground it feels great with his chest against her own. 

He lines himself up against her, and there is a moment of impossible pressure before it presses in, the sensation surging up her sex and through his spine. The internal howl of triumph surges through her as she slides him in, all of this followed by the profound realization that someone was _inside_ her. 

She freezes and squeezes her eyes closed at the stretch. It hurts, but not like she expects and he is still as a predator above her. She looks up to see a slit of silver behind lidded eyes, his breath baited as he waits for her to move. Nil is impossibly sweet this way, she realizes, his face deeply satisfied in the quiet moments between hot, unmeasured breathes.

Her hands find his shoulders, and she pulls him toward her, causing Nil to slide further in, millimeter by millimeter. Her lips part, but eyes never leave Nil's, letting him see the minute progress of every sensation. 

He is almost buried inside her now, and with arms shaking, the impossible tightness causes her to feel a pulse that might be her own or Nil's. She slides her hands up his sweat-slicked neck and hair and pulls him down to capture his mouth. This time, the kiss isn't greedy or selfish, and she does it with her full body. 

She releases his mouth only so she can look at his face now, feeling shaky with feeling only to be rewarded with a pure smile of Nil's pointed teeth that is still somehow enigmatic. 

"Wow," he huffs a small laugh, and Aloy does too. Time is strange and doesn't quite work right anymore, as they transition from something akin to partners in death to lovers. And there is no time for overthinking as Nil leans down to kiss her again, and complete the circuit that makes the current flow. 

Nil moves, thrusting into her. He is gripping one of her hips enough to bruise and Aloy groans with the pain of it and the slap of his balls against her, deep. Aloy wraps her arms around him with a shift of intention, and she realizes she's close. With a grit of her teeth and head thrown back, she cries out in pleasure as her body tightens around the hunter, giving Nil the most imperative command she could give. 

She takes her hands and grabs his hips, forcing him _down_ , exerting pressure so exactly like falling that she has to brace herself before she yells out, losing everything at once. 

He pulls out of her just as he comes, a ribbon of white across her chest and belly, and then another and another. 

Her heart hammers loud in her ears and Nil is forced to lower Aloy back down into the grass, and there is nothing but the cacophony of their heavy breathing for a long time. 

"Tell me," he asks, amusement into her neck. 

"Was it what you expected?" he asks, pulling back onto his haunches slowly and Aloy sinks into the grass a little more. In the distance, she smells rain. The endorphins passing through her as if she were nothing. 

"I should have seen it, I suppose," she answers, looking up at the impossibly large sky, and then at the hunter who is watching her, an unnamed look about him.

"It wasn't ever a battle was it?" Aloy asks him, sitting up and Nil rests his forearms on his knees, watching her.

"Huh, I guess not for you," he says. And Aloy realizes he's already lost, and Nil doesn't seem to mind all that much.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr! [lovelycarja.tumblr.com](https://lovelycarja.tumblr.com/).  
> 


End file.
